I want to read just a portion
of this verse in Colossians chapter 3 and verse 16. I want to just look here and
pull it right out of the context and look at a few things concerning
what the Apostle Paul said here in verse 16. Colossians chapter
3, verse 16. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and urging one another,
encouraging one another, warning one another, admonishing one
another in songs and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with
grace in your hearts to the Lord. Let the Word of Christ dwell
in you. You know, I don't say many of
the Lord's children, believers, but I imagine there's a few,
that seldom read the Lord's Word. They just don't read it very
much. Now that's sad, but it's true. Many believers, several
believers, read the Lord's Word very little. And as a result
of that, they get very little comfort when they really need
comfort in the time of affliction. David said, this is my comfort
in my affliction. Thy Word has quickened me. And I'd say much trouble that
believers get into And the cause of a lot of grief which they
face in their life is because they neglect the words of Christ. David said, Before I was afflicted,
I went astray, but now have I kept thy word. And I just bet you,
if he had kept the words of the Lord from the beginning, he wouldn't
have got in trouble. Now I've kept thy word. And much
sin that you and I commit would be avoided if the word of Christ
dwelt in our hearts in all wisdom. Thy word have I hid in my heart,
that I might not sin against thee. His word will keep us from
sin and from snares. By the word of thy mouth, Lord,
I have kept thee from the paths of the destroyer. Sanctify thee
through thy truth, thy word is truth. Wherewithal shall a young
man cleanse his ways by taking heed to thy word. His word will
keep us in the ways of truth. And how simple, how much more
simple, and how much more clearer our way is when the words of
Christ dwell in us. Thy word is the lamp to my feet,
and it's a light unto my pathway. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. And how much stronger is our
faith when the word of Christ dwells in us richly and always. Faith is something you and I
are born without. We can't go up to heaven to get
it. We can't muster it up. Have you ever tried to muster
up faith? Have you ever tried to believe?
The Word of Christ is the foundation for our faith. Faith comes by
hearing, and hearing by the Word of God. It gives faith. It brings faith, and it strengthens
the faith that it gives. It's vitally linked to our faith,
the words of our Lord Jesus Christ. Lord, speak the Word only. What is faith? It's believing
Christ. And what is it to believe Christ
but to believe His word? Lord, speak the word only, and
thy servants shall be whole. I have not found so great a faith. Faith is simply believing His
word. And they're so linked together,
they're so linked together. Where there's no words of Christ,
there can't be faith. And where His word is not in
our hearts, as it could be, faith is not as strong as it would
be. The Word of Christ is biblically
linked to our assurance that our hope is a good hope. The hope of the hypocrite shall
perish. How do you and I know that we have a good hope? Everybody
has some kind of hope. I was talking with a man who
owned a mortuary there in Kentucky, and he said he'd been working
in that mortuary, I think, at that time for 40 years. And he
said he never buried the first man without hope. It seems like
when somebody dies, everybody musters up a hope for him. How
do you and I know that we have a good hope? It's based upon
the words of Christ. Listen to what David said. Remember
the word unto thy servant, upon which thou hast caused me to
hope. Our hope is based upon the words
of Christ himself. He gives us a promise in his
word, and we hope in it. Abraham, against hope, believed
in hope. God said, Abraham, you're going
to have a son. I know how old you are, I know how barren Sarah
is, but I promise you a son. Abraham said, I'm a hope in thy
promise. That's a good hope. A hope that's based upon the
words of Christ himself. My soul fainted for thy salvation,
but I hope in thy word. I asked my dad one time. My dad
was an old, old man. Didn't live very long after I
asked him this question. I said, Dad, I said, you've been
professing the Lord, he'd been professing the Lord probably
60 years. And I said, what's your hope based on? And he looked at me, and he never
did answer me. He never did answer me. Ain't
that sad? Peter said, be ready always,
didn't he? Be ready always to give an answer to every man that
asks you a reason of the hope that's in you. How do we know
our hopes are good hopes? It's based upon the words of
Christ. And where the words of Christ don't dwell in the heart,
faith has to be weak and hope has to be dim. Because the words
of Christ is the foundation of these graces. It's so vitally
linked to these graces, faith and hope. If you've been neglected
the words of Christ, brothers and sisters, begin reading it.
Begin reading it regularly on a daily basis. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you. How does the word of Christ get
in a man? How does the words of Christ
get in us? Let it dwell in you. Very little of Christ's Word
gets in the average person by preaching, through preaching
or teaching. They just don't hear that much of it. You know,
most of us here, the average person I'm talking about, I'm
not talking about the preacher or the Sunday school teacher,
but I'm talking about the average believer. Very little of Christ's
Word gets in their heart through preaching and teaching. They're
just here probably twice a week. I know we are, aren't we? If you're going to get the words
of Christ in you, the chief way that you'll get it in you is
by reading His Word. Reading His Word. And let me
say this about reading His Word, and please don't understand me.
There's two things that hinder the average believer from reading
the Lord's Word. And this first one may surprise
you. But one of the things that hinders the average believer
from reading Christ's Word It's study. It's study. Larry has to study.
I have to study. We're teachers and we're preachers.
If I wasn't a preacher, I'd do very little study. Study is hard
work anyway. And if you study, you've got
to have notes. You've got to have some books
to study with. And it's difficult work. And my advice to the average
believer, don't spend so much time studying. Don't think about
studying. Just read. Just read. I take most of my time through
the week is spending for me reading for myself. If I spend all the
time studying, I tell you, I get so tired. I get so mentally drained. Just read. Just read. Preachers,
a lot of preachers like that word, study to show yourself
approved unto God. I like that word that says this,
till I come to give attendance to read it. Because I like to
read. Just read. Sit down with the
book of John and read it right through. Go to Genesis and just
read it right through. Read. That's the way Christ's
word gets in our heart, saying, read His word. And there's something
else, I think, also that hinders us in our reading and Christ's Word getting
in us. We look for immediate results. In our self-conscience, we sit
down to read His Word, and if we don't feel something, And
we don't have some immediate insight into what we've read
or immediate instructions or peace or comfort or joy or something,
we get discouraged and say, I'm getting nothing out of this whatsoever.
Aren't we that way? We grow discouraged and we quit
reading. Reading the Lord's Word and getting
it in your heart is sort of like eating. I have a brother-in-law,
and I think I may have told you about this, but I thought what
a good example this is. I had a brother-in-law that got
false teeth, and we went out with him and my sister and ate
a pizza. And he would just, I was loving
the pizza. Man, I was loving it. It was a good pizza. Licking
my fingers, it was good. And I noticed him sitting across
from me. It had no effect upon him at all. And I said, what's
the matter with you? He said, I can't taste a thing. And he got these false teeth,
and it was interfering with his taste buds. And he couldn't taste
his food. But you know something? He got
the same nourishment out of his daddy. He said, Bruce, what are you
saying? I'm saying this. Don't look for immediate results. Way down the road somewhere,
when you're weak, You'll have a moment of weakness, and then
you'll feel the strength of Christ's Word. You'll have a time where
you run into some darkness and you understand it, and there's
when you'll find the Word of Christ is life to you. Or your
spirit will be troubled over something, and His Word will
come and comfort you. Don't look for some immediate
result. Don't sit down and say, I've
read a chapter and haven't got a thing out of it. Just go on
reading. Go on reading. You'll see the effects of it.
You'll see the nourishment after a while. That's the chief way
the words of Christ get in us. Let the words of Christ get in
you. Read it, and read it, and read
it, and read it. When I was down in Yucatan, they
wanted me to teach to the preachers, the preachers down there. And
try to give them some instructions. Me give preachers instructions.
I thought that was rather silly myself, but I tried to. But here's
what I told them. I said, brothers, if you're going
to preach, there's three things you're going to have to remember.
If you remember these three things, if God's called you to preach,
you can preach. Number one is read His Word. And number two is read this Word. And number three is read His
Word. Read His Word. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you. Get it in your heart. Something else about this, read
it and let it into your heart. with the consciousness of whose
word it is. Whose word is it? It's the word
of Christ. Let the word of Christ dwell
in you. Read it with reverence, because
it's the word of Christ our God. All scripture is given by inspiration
of God. It's God-breathed. Read it prayerfully,
read it slowly, read it with humility, for it's the spiritual
words of Christ. The words I speak unto you are
spirit in their life, and they must be taught us by the Spirit,
or we can't understand it. Read it not as the words of a
mere man, because it's the words of the King. where the words
of the King is, there's power. Read it in faith, read it in
hope, read it in assurance, because it's the Word of Christ our Savior. Read it with delight, read it
with joy, read it with love, for it's the Word of Christ our
Husband. I have espoused you to one Husband,
even Christ. No child of God, no believer
should ever read the word out of guilt. Nothing is accomplished,
well I wouldn't say nothing, but very little is accomplished
through guilt. This is the words of our husband. If your husband was in a foreign
country and he wrote you a letter, and you got that letter in your
hand, Would you say, oh, I've got to read this. I'm going to
be overwhelmed with guilt if I don't. Would you say that?
That would be ridiculous, wouldn't it? Here's a letter from my husband.
This is a love letter from my husband. Read it in love. If you don't read his word, don't
feel guilty about it. Don't feel guilty about it. Don't
let your life be ruled by guilt. Don't feel guilty if you don't
read the words of your Savior. Instead, just realize whose word
it is and how much you're missing by not reading. And read with the intention and
with a purpose and with a need of getting the message from Christ's
Word. Notice what he said. Let the
Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. In all wisdom. It's not enough
just to read it. It's not enough just to get some
bare knowledge from it. But we need to get the message
from it. In all wisdom, I know a guy, he used to be sort of
a friend of mine, he's pretty well a Baptist preacher. And
at that time, which had been probably 15, 18 years ago, he
had the end-time New Testament memorized. I mean, talking with
him is like talking with the Bible. He's probably got the
old memorized by now. And I say this with all courtesy
to that poor man, he didn't have a spiritual licksense. I sat
and listened to him once, and he preached against the doctrines of grace, and tried
to use the scriptures to disprove every one of them. Do you think
he's got any sense? The Bible is almost to him what it was
to the Jews. It was a book full of legal commandments,
a book full of rules and rights and ceremonies, A book that depended
upon the free will of man, the power of man's will, instead
of the power and the merits of the Son of God? He didn't have any wisdom. Let
the words of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom. You read this book, and if you
see everything in here is by chance, and depends upon human
will, And the power and merits of Christ are relegated to a
mere helpless bystander, hoping and praying that somebody will
let him do something? You're not reading with wisdom.
The Bible is the Word of Christ. And the Word of Christ does not
degrade and humiliate him. Now, he doesn't. If a man is
reading the words of Christ and he's reached the conclusion that
the Scriptures reveal the puny little helpless scribe, he's
missed the message of this book. This words of Christ sets forth
the glory of the person of Christ. and the wonders of the mighty
acts of Christ and that everlasting salvation from sin that is in
Christ. Brother Mann used to say the
Bible is a H-I-M book. It's a hymn book. It's the Word
of Christ. Beginning at Moses and all the
prophets, He expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things
concerning him. And tell what he said. From a
child you've known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise
unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. It's
wisdom. It's wisdom. Not just memorization
of our knowledge. That's not enough, is it? As
we grow in knowledge, we must grow in grace and increase in
wisdom. Grow in grace and knowledge. If you grow in knowledge, you'll
get puffed up. You've got to grow in grace and
in knowledge. Grace keeps us needy, doesn't
it? Grace keeps us humble. We grow in knowledge through
humility. Knowledge comes through a broken
heart. Knowledge comes through a broken
spirit. You can read the Word of Christ
and even grow in some knowledge of Christ. But I tell you, if
you don't grow in grace, you'll get proud of your knowledge.
Grace. Grace and knowledge. And someone
said, if we don't increase in wisdom, We'll be like a car,
a vehicle without a driver. That's what knowledge is without
wisdom. Knowledge is like a vehicle without
a driver. Knowledge is the vehicle, wisdom
is the driver. And you know that's a dangerous
thing to be going down the road in. The dangerous people in this
world is those who read the Word of Christ and have a little knowledge
but no wisdom. No wisdom. Let the word of Christ
dwell in you richly in all wisdom. And something else he says here,
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Richly. And you know when it does, when
it does, is when we see how rich we are. The words of Christ reveals to
us how rich a people we are. God has chosen the poor of this
world rich in faith. I tell you, you can possess all
the riches of this world, and if you don't have faith, you've
never been given faith that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, you're
still in poverty. But if you've been given this
faith, God has given you faith, a heart faith, to believe on
the Lord Jesus Christ. You're so rich, there's no man-made
vault that can hold that precious treasure. Most people in this
world, the masses of people, live without saving faith, and
they die without saving faith. But God gives you faith, Clarence.
You're rich. You're rich. And look what he
says back here in chapter 2 of this book. Look here in verse
2. Chapter 2 and verse 2. That their hearts might be knit
together in love, and to all riches of the full assurance
of understanding. to the knowledge, to the profession,
to the acknowledgment of the mystery of God and of the Father
and of Christ. Full assurance of understanding
of what? Some mysteries. The mystery of
God. Great is the mystery of godliness.
God was manifest in the flesh. And I tell you, I don't know
about a lot of these mysteries, but we find some right here.
Look in chapter 1. Look here in verse 27. Here's a mystery, and we have
the assurance of this. Look at it. You understand this?
"...to whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory
of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope
of God." That's a mystery, isn't it? Christ, who is in heaven,
and He's in you, Christ who is so immense that He fills heaven
and earth, and He's in your heart, and that's your hope of glory.
He's in you. You can't perish if He's in you,
can you? That's a mystery. That's a mystery. But you understand
that, don't you? And you have the assurance of
that. Look here, what a mystery. Look in chapter 2 in verse 9.
For in Him, in Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, the Son of Mary,
dwelleth all the fullness of the Godhead in his body. That's a mystery, ain't it? And
look in verse 10, and ye are complete, like in method, full
to the brim, in him. That's another mystery. And look
here, what a mystery. Look in chapter 3, in verse 11.
Look at this. There is neither Greek nor Jew,
circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, scythian, bond or
free, but Christ is all. And He's in all. He's in all
who believe. And He is all. I'm a poor sinner
and nothing at all, but Jesus Christ is my all. And all. And look what he says back over
in chapter 2 again. Look here in verse 6. As ye have
therefore received this Christ, this Christ Jesus the Lord, so
walk ye in him, rooted and built up in him, and established in
the faith as ye have been taught, abounding therein with thanksgiving. Oh, David said, I rejoice at
thy word. We wouldn't have this precious
truth if we didn't have the word of Christ with us. David said,
I read them. Sometimes I stay up all night,
he said, reading them. I prevent the rising of the sun
just to read and meditate in his Word. And he said, I rejoice
at it as they that find great spawn. We have hope. This poor, poor world that you
and I live in, it's in darkness, uncertainty, confusion, just
groping around in darkness. Don't know what faces us tomorrow,
but it faces an eternity that it cannot avoid and has no hope. But you and I have a good hope,
don't we? We have a good hope. The words of Christ have given
us a good hope. Rich, a rich hope. A sure and
certain hope. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you richly in all wisdom. Let it dwell in you with a childlike
faith and a trust. A childlike faith. The greatest
honor that you and I could bestow upon our Savior is just to believe
Him. Believe what He tells us. Just
like a little child believes his father and his mother. Lord,
I'm a child. Teach me. And I'll believe what
You tell me. Just teach me. The angel came
to Mary. The angel Gabriel. He came to
that virgin and he said, you're going to have a son. He's going
to be great. He's going to be called the son
of the highest. And God's going to give him a kingdom. He's going
to rule. He's going to reign. And she
said, I don't even know a man. Never know a man. How can I have
a child? And he simply said to her, the Holy Ghost is going
to come upon you. And the power of the highest is going to overshadow
you. That's not even according to
our reason, is it? Who can understand such a thing?
But you know what she said? Let it be according to your word.
And she went up to see her cousin Elizabeth and told her what had
happened, and she said, Mary, you're a blessed woman because
you believed. You submitted your reason to faith and revelation. That's a blessing, isn't it?
Just received it as a little child. Things that seemed impossible
to us, we believe them, don't. We just submit our understanding
right to it and say, Lord, I believe. With God, all things are possible,
I believe. I'll tell you one thing, brother.
I'm here as the lowest fellow you've ever seen in your life.
I'm one of the stardest men you ever laid your eyes on. But I
believe I'm going to heaven to be with the Lord. Now that's
amazing to me. That's amazing. Heaven's high.
Heaven's high, and I'm low. I'm out of the dust. But I believe
something that's amazing simply because God said it. I'm going
to heaven to be with the Lord. I believe it. I believe Him.
A child lacks faith. A child lacks trust. And I won't
be disappointed either. And you won't either if you believe
Him. You won't if you believe Him. Let the words of Christ dwell
in you honestly. Let it dwell in you sincerely,
with sincerity and firmly. And brothers and sisters, let
me say this, it won't dwell in us any other way. The Word of
God is pure. The Word of God is truth and
it's sincere and it's honest. And the only way it can dwell
in us is for us to let it dwell there in sincerity and in honesty. Let it teach us the truth. Don't go with your preconceived
ideas. Don't go to the words of Christ's
desire and hit submit to our system of theology. Go there
sincerely and deal with it. What it seems to teach at first,
probably is what it teaches. Probably is what it teaches.
It's when we start trying to twist it and mold it, we get
in trouble. If it teaches, if it seems to
teach God's sovereignty, it probably does. If it seems to teach man's
responsibility, it probably does. But go to the Word of Christ.
And get it in your heart and be sincere with it. And be honest
with it. And don't you talk to it. You
let it talk to you. And it says here, and I like
this, let the Word of Christ dwell in you. Let it dwell there. It's not something that you can
force. And it ain't something I can
force on you. Lovingly allow it to dwell there. Lovingly do
so. Let it. Let it. And let the words of Christ dwell
in you just like you let your food into you daily. Daily. You and I ate today, and if we
don't eat for a couple of days, we're going to lose the nourishment,
aren't we? And we're going to start getting
weak. The Lord made it that way. He made us to eat. Let it be
the same way with Christ's words. Eat it daily. When the Lord gave
the children of Israel manna, he'd give it to them every day.
Every day. Go to the manna of this word,
brothers and sisters, every day. Blessed is the man who meditates
in this. When? Day and night. Day and night. Daily eat his
word. Shut the TV off. He said, I ain't
got time. Shut that TV off. He said, well,
we've got to run and take a bath. Maybe skip a bath. He said, well, we've got to eat.
Man shall not live by bread alone. I'm just saying this is the most
important daily thing that you and I could ever do, brothers
and sisters. We ain't got much longer in this life, have we?
And we'll never read another sentence properly after we die. All the reading we're going to
do, the words of Christ, will be here. Mr. Spurgeon said he
hopes there will be a Bible there in heaven for us to go look at.
I do too. I do too. But right here is where we need
to read it and get it in our hearts daily. And as we do that,
the Apostle tells us here, We can teach one another. We can help one another and conquer
one another. If I got up here and started
giving you my opinions, I wouldn't last probably over a month with
it. At first, you'd probably be somewhat excited about it.
I'll get up and tell what's happened to me and what I've experienced
and give you my opinions. It may seem exciting for a service,
but after a while, you would start saying, Bruce, I want the
Word of Christ. You're just not helping me. Why
don't you help me when you quote Scripture to me? When you say,
here's what the Lord said. That's when we help each other,
isn't it? Did you ever go to a worship service? I know you
have. And you've been down. And somebody got up and just
read His Word. And oh, it just encouraged you.
Or somebody got up and taught His Word, preached His Word.
It just encouraged you and enlightened you. You come with a question.
You come with a question, baby. And lo and behold, Christ's Word
answers it before you leave. Have you ever had that happen
to you? teaching and admonishing one another. If the Word of Christ
dwells in us in all wisdom, we'll help one another. I hope the
Lord is pleased to bless His Word to your heart.